By Cooper Inveen
ACCRA (Reuters) – Ghana extends deadline to register its domestic debt swap further to January 19 In a statement late on Saturday, the Treasury said in order to obtain “internal approval” from the financial sector.
The ministry also announced changes to debt swaps that would create eight additional instruments.
The Ghanaian government has reached a staff-level agreement on a $3 billion loan package from the International Monetary Fund to ease the economic crisis. The IMF said its board would approve the deal only if Ghana undertakes a comprehensive debt restructuring.
Ghana announced a domestic debt swap earlier this month and said it was negotiating an external restructuring with creditors.
The ministry previously extended the registration deadline for domestic debt swaps from December
to December 30 at first.
“This extension gives the government … an opportunity to adjust certain measures, taking into account proposals from all stakeholders,” the Treasury said in a statement on Saturday, announcing the first extension.
It was originally planned to replace local bonds with 2025, , 2029 And 2037, the annual interest is set to 0% in 2025, 5% in 2024 and 10% from 2025 until expiration.
However, in a statement on Saturday, the Treasury said it would create eight additional facilities, bringing the total number of new bonds to 16, annually from 2029 to 2037 .
The coupon value of the new bond is not yet known how many.
Saturday’s announcement also said individual bondholders would now be invited to participate in the scheme, despite their initial exemption.
The government exempted pension funds from the scheme on Thursday after labor and advocacy groups widely condemned their inclusion.
The Ministry of Finance said on Saturday that it expects to reach a domestic debt restructuring agreement by January next year at the latest 30.
